Deanna Rosolen

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Glasgow, Scotland – After studying many popular processed foods and ready meals found in local grocery stores, a professor and entrepreneur decided it was time to create a healthier option.

The two – Mike Lean, a professor in the human nutrition department at Glasgow University; and Donnie Maclean, founder of Eat Balanced – teamed up and decided to tackle one of the most popular meals: frozen pizza.

“We’ve studied ready meals produced by the top five supermarkets in Scotland and they’re hopelessly [nutritionally] unbalanced,” Lean told the Scotsman.com.

“They contain as much salt as you should have in a whole day or more. They contain as much saturated fat as you should have in a whole day or more. The nutrients we need every day are absent from these meals.”

Lean and Maclean say what they developed is a healthy, nutritious option that will soon be available in grocery freezers.

Nutritious features

The pizzas, reports the BBC news, contain 30 per cent of an adult’s guideline daily amount of vitamins and minerals. They also have a third of the recommended amount of calories, protein and carbohydrates.

The BBC reports that Maclean helped Lean come up with unusual ways of incorporating more nutrients into the pizzas.

For instance, Maclean says he researched the market and found that seaweed is an ingredient being used in artisan bread. The sodium content in seaweed is about 3.5 per cent compared to 40 per cent in salt.

So the pair used seaweed in the pizzas’ crust to lower the sodium. Seaweed is also flavourful, and contains iodine and vitamin B12. They also mixed red pepper into the tomato base to add more vitamin C.

The pizzas also contain magnesium, potassium, folates and vitamin A.

The BBC news reports that the pair is already looking into how they can revamp other popular ready meals such as curry, and fish and chips.